nirvana in a cave pre buddhist structures! (inoue)

I would like to thank Prof. John Huntington for commenting on myresponse to the "Nirvana in a cave!?" inquiry, and here, I would liketo add a few clarifications to my previous posting.

1. Although I cited scientific descriptions of the Bodhi-tree (Ficusreligiosa and benghalensis) by specialists (E. J. H. Corner and J.Galil), I have to admit that I am an armchair dendrologist. Theclosest I have ever been to a huge Bodhi-tree is by watching thatwonderful 'Awakening' scene in Bertolucci's "Little Buddha."Siddhartha's tree, as Jesse calls it, is extremely large, and fits thespecifications of the Bodhi-tree by J. Galil in his "Ficus religiosa L.—the tree-splitter": "the main trunk, below the branches, gives riseto longitudinal, rounded bulges, which give it a distinct corrugatedappearance (Fig.2). These bulges extend up the stem into the sidebranches and downwards, becoming confluent with the spreading roots atthe soil surface." (p.188)…. "As the trunk bulges become larger andabut on each other, they tend to coalesce, owing to the very easy self-grafting of the Ficus species. Cavities are created where the bulgesremain separated, but at points where the bulges meet, the bark isobliterated and the abutting bulges coalesce. Consequently, the entiretrunk may become a single massive block, despite the deeply corrugatedappearance of its periphery" (ibid. p.189). What I meant in myprevious posting by the phrase "inside such a hollow niche (oralcove)" is, to put it more accurately in the case of the Asvattha,"be circumvallated by the spreading roots on the ground, by the canopyof branches above, and by the large crevice between the longitudinal,rounded bulges from behind." Such a niche of the Asvattha, or massivebasket-roots in the case of the Nigrodha, may be physically differentfrom a cave structure, but could be called one in a metaphorical senseand also be regarded as "Yakkha's abode, or haunt." The 'tree-symbolism' and the 'metaphor of the cave' (here, slightly differentfrom the one used by Plato in The Republic) are not mutuallyexclusive. That is what I was trying to point out. In this respect, Iwould like to thank Dr. Hudaya Kandahjaya ("A Heart [hr.daya], Bornfrom the Trunk [skandha-jaya]," like the phrase in the Suciloma sutta?Is this interpretation right, Hudaya-san?) for reminding me of theassociation between "cave" and "tomb," "womb (garbha)," "house(gr.ha)," and the "muula-sthaana," the last of which fits in verynicely with the significance of the "radical trunk" of the Asvatthaand the Nigrodha.

(If you search images of "host tree" on the Internet [e.g. usingGoogle], you can find pictures of large basket-roots of the Nigrodha.For example, the one entitled "The inside of a strangler fig thatsuffocated and killed its host tree," by Jacob Jansen [the thirdpicture in the following page: <http://college.usc.edu/jacob-jensen/

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>], and "The Art of Ecological Research and Strangulation… anexample of a successful strangulation: a hollow tunnel to the skywhere the host once lived" by Kristin [You have to scroll down thefollowing page quite a bit. <http://www.kristinsworld.com/2006_06_01_archive.html >])

2. As Prof. John Strong pointed out in his response, there seems tohave been pre-Buddhist structures at the site of the Buddha'sEnlightenment. The "cave/tomb/house/tree overlap" motif can be tracedto the early history of caityas. See V. R. Ramchandra Dikshitar,"Origin and Early History of Caityas," Indian Historical Quarterly,Vol. 14 No. 3 (1938), pp. 440-451, and B. C. Law, "Appendix: A Note onthe Cetiya in the Buddhist Literature," in Geography of Early Buddhism(London: Kegan Paul, 1932), pp.74-80. See also Gregory Schopen,"Immigrant Monks and the Proto-Historical Dead: The BuddhistOccupation of Early Burial Sites in India," in Buddhist Monks andBusiness Matters (University of Hawai'i Press, 2004), pp.360-381, andRobert DeCaroli, Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and theFormation of Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2004). According toDikshitar, caitya is a pre-Buddhist institution, and "caitya-sthaana"in Sanskrit literature meant a burial ground with a "piled-up"structure like a tumulus or a funeral pile, and in the Buddha's dayswas associated with sacred trees (caitya vr.ks.a), shrines (caityagr.ha, or caitya praasaada), and the abodes of devataa (devakula).Among the many cetiyas that B. C. Law mentions are Gautama-nyagrodhacaitya (p. 75) and Aggaal.ava cetiya in Aal.avii. The latter, in thecontext of Man.ikan.t.ha Jaataka "was something of the nature of acave-dwelling or a vihaara." (p.77) In most of these cetiyas, theirnames seem to refer to sacred trees, i.e., the Asvattha and/or theNigrodha, together with a piled-like structure in the sanctuary.

Here, these artificial structures and the characteristic nature of theAsvattha and the Nigrodha can inseparably be connected: "The tendencyto seek shelter inside a variety of objects easily explains the highlyefficient, albeit regrettable, manner whereby F. religiosa roots spoilthe archaeological remains of ancient civilizations, by growing intothe interstices between the stones and the bricks." (J. Galil, "Ficusreligiosa L.—the tree-splitter," p.198). The picture of a small bricktemple (caitya gr.ha) penetrated and enveloped by the roots of theAsvattha (Fig. 12, ibid. p. 200) is quite impressive. The entireshrine is actually inside its massive "radical trunk" (whose diameteris probably more than 4 m) and, in fact, becomes part of it.

3. Perhaps the most significant characteristic of the Nigrodha andAsvattha as a metaphor for the Buddha's attaining Nirvana is thisoperation of their destructive power on 'man-made structures,' themost radical of which is the tenacious 'conceptualization of self, orego.' If you remember the Enlightenment scene in "Little Buddha,"after Siddhartha overcame the temptation by Mara's daughters and theattack by Mara's army, Mara himself finally emerged from the smallpool between the spreading roots (muula-sthaana), looking exactly likeSiddhartha (Keanu Reeves), and grabs his hand. Then comes Siddhartha'sdeclaration with that famous metaphor of the house and house-builder(gahakaaraka => sam.khaara). Here, I quote from the original text ofthe Dhammapada, translated by John Ross Carter and MahindaPalihawadana (Oxford University Press, 1987, p.219):

House-builder, you are seen. The house you shall not build again! Broken are your rafters, all, Freedom from the sam.khaaras has the mind attained. To the end of cravings has it come. (Dhp. 154)

The house being completely destroyed, and the earth being the onlywitness, Siddhartha becomes the Buddha, and shining rays of lightemanate from his body.

4. Interpreted in this way (that pays attention to slesha, or


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"multivalent symbology"), the 'tree-symbolism' and the 'metaphor ofthe cave' (house/shrine/tomb/womb) are significantly related in theearly Buddhist discourse on 'Awakening.' The Buddha appropriated theVedic/Brahmanical sacred trees and the conventional caityas asmetaphors and changed their symbolic meanings. In the case of theAsvattha and the Nigrodha, the "splitter" and the "strangler," theirdestructive power that eventually kills their host trees and breaks upartificial structures has a positive significance in the Buddha's useof this metaphor. From the standpoint of the 'perishing host tree,'the 'crushed house' and 'emptied cave/tomb/womb,' the great power ofnature that penetrates from outside is the unwavering enabler of theeventual liberation from samsara.

If I may add as a student of Pure Land Buddhism, that is what Tanluancalled "other power," while Shandao expounded on "deep entrusting."Shinran experienced the whole process and described it as "jinen honi自然法爾 (lit. naturally as the Dharma operates)" at the age ofeighty-six. <http://www.shinranworks.com/letters/mattosho5.htm >.

INOUE TakamiOtani University

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nirvana in a cave pre buddhist structures! (inoue)

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